A real expert shedding his light on the war

Interview with Prof. Dr. Geert-Jan Alexander Knoops, lawyer in international and criminal law. He is a professor by special appointment of Politics of International Law at the University of Amsterdam.

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He emphasizes that the war in Gaza is classified as Urban Warfare, which is unprecedented in history.

International laws are often used for political means nowadays. Especially when using terms as genocide, starvation and disproportionality. These terms are used in the media by journalist and experts, while using these terms don’t add any value. Nobody knows the exact data. The media but also Amnesty International represent one side without using counterinformation. It might be considered as a case of confirmation bias. It is hard to be neutral. Numbers are no facts at all.

There are many misinterpretations in the media regarding the claim of genocide. The media reported that the court decided that Israel was committing genocide. The president of the ICJ Donoghue even explained on the BBC (https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/sagyamit_genocide-genocide-activity-7189612353246711808-NwU1?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop ) that the media misinterpreted. The same is true for the operation in Rafah. Media overlooked the clause which came with this judgment.

As long as there is no verdict, people should not use the word genocide.

Many leaders in the UN or are using words with no basis in legality, meaning only copy what one side of the conflict claims and not taking into account what the other side claims.

All the claims are not verifiable. This also applies to the operation in which four hostages were freed from captivity in which the word disproportionality is misused by many people.

In International law, intention and the information available at that moment are very important notions. This is always overlooked in the discussion about this conflict. Is Israel’s intention to commit genocide or act in a disproportioned manner? What we see is a framing of situations by people who were not there and are inadequate to make considerations the way judges are doing this, meaning intentions and information available at that point of time. The outcome of an action (how many civilians died) is never decisive under international law.

How independent are CC and ICJ judges? There is no guarantee that judges are not influenced by media or reports from human rights organizations. However, the rule is that this type of information is not automatically accepted as evidence in the international court of law. All sources have to be able to be verified. If not, like UN reports or articles in newspapers, have to be able to be verified on validity later on. Otherwise they are not considered to be valid and cannot be used in court.

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?Full interview (in Dutch):

https://youtu.be/26rHTjKmK7I?si=IPdg5O9Tg7_846X2

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